This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Energy storage materials with high capacity and rapid charge/discharge rate are of great interest in lithium ion batteries (LIBs), especially for expanding the application to high power systems such as electric vehicles. The bronze polymorph of titanium dioxide (also referred to as TiO2—B, TiO2(b), TiO2(bronze), titania bronze, “bronze,” etc.) is an excellent candidate due to its open structure and fast lithium ion transport via a pseudocapacitive Faradaic process leveraging ultrahigh discharge rates comparable to those of supercapacitors while maintaining the advantage of storing energy in the bulk. However, existing forms of powder/slurry prepared by conventional hydrothermal methods pose certain challenges, including limited purity, a randomized crystal orientation and the unavoidable presence of lattice water in its structure.